


Lost moments and new chances

by Nary



Category: Adventure World (game)
Genre: Childbirth, Crying, Dragonborn (D&D), F/M, Family Feels, Family Issues, Fatherhood, Group Marriage, M/M, Motherhood, Parenthood, Past Abuse, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 10:25:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1171940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nary/pseuds/Nary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“When will the baby get here?”  It was approximately the hundredth time Saiya had asked in the past several months, but the first time Aleyn was able to answer her with any degree of accuracy.</p><p>“Probably tonight,” he told her, and then glanced at the clock on the wall, which was pushing closer to the childrens’ usual bedtime.  “Maybe tomorrow.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost moments and new chances

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Expectations](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1170624) by [Measured_Words](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured_Words/pseuds/Measured_Words). 



> Thanks as usual to all my AW folks!

“When will the baby get here?” It was approximately the hundredth time Saiya had asked in the past several months, but the first time Aleyn was able to answer her with any degree of accuracy.

“Probably tonight,” he told her, and then glanced at the clock on the wall, which was pushing closer to the childrens’ usual bedtime. “Maybe tomorrow.”

They had come back to Highmark for the birth - it offered surroundings that were safer and more comfortable than anything Nachtur could currently offer, and assuaged the demands of grandparents, making it the obvious choice. They had been there five days when Ardith’s labour pangs had begun, sporadically at first, but gradually increasing in intensity through last night and this morning. The three of them had managed a few hours of rest, but not nearly enough. By noon they had felt it was time to send for the family, and they had begun to arrive shortly thereafter. Ardith’s mother and her sister and a couple of her friends, Vedran’s mother, Aleyn’s mother - crowds of women descending on the house to offer their support and advice to the new mother-to-be. Even Ardith’s grandmother, a formidable old woman, had paid a visit, although she had left a few hours before, saying that she would come back the following day and that she expected to see a great-grandchild by then. Vedran and Aleyn were completely outnumbered, more than a little overwhelmed, and had retreated briefly to the room where the children were being looked after by Amylia and Jindra, partly to check on the kids, partly just in order to regroup.

Mhireen was keeping himself busy writing in one of his notebooks, while Saiya was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement, to her nurse’s dismay. Despite the increasingly late hour, Aleyn felt sure she wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon. Macen was playing with his blocks, and Vedran was sitting close to him, more watching than joining in with his fun. The look on his face was hard to interpret, but Aleyn guessed it hid a difficult mixture of emotions - worry, exhaustion, guilt… Vedran hadn’t been involved (hadn’t been allowed to be involved) in Macen’s birth, and it had to be bringing up troubling memories for him, on top of all the usual stress of his wife’s lying-in.

“By the time you wake up tomorrow morning,” Aleyn told Saiya over-optimistically, “you’ll have a new little sister or brother.”

“Sister!” Saiya shouted, even as Mhireen said “brother” more quietly to himself. Macen seemed to have no strong opinion on the matter, but just exclaimed “baby!”

“That’s right,” Vedran told him, “the baby is coming soon.” His voice wavered slightly as he said it, and Aleyn reached out to take his husband’s hand and give it a reassuring squeeze.

“Can we go see Mommy now?” Saiya asked, jumping down from the sofa and clambering up Aleyn’s leg in her excitement.

“Not yet,” Aleyn said. “Right now she’s doing a lot of hard work to bring the baby out, and she needs to have peace and quiet.” This claim was belied by a shout from the bedroom down the hall that made them all start and turn in the direction the sound had come from. Shortly thereafter, Vinalia poked her head into the room.

“My dears, Ardith is asking for you.”

Aleyn gently detached Saiya from his leg. “Make sure you listen to Amylia and Jindra and go to bed like a good girl, all right?”

“Will you wake us up when the baby finally comes out and we can see her and Mommy?” She sounded a little more anxious than excited now, and Aleyn bent down to give her a hug. 

“Everything is fine,” he told her, even though he wasn’t entirely certain it was true. “And I promise you’ll all get to see them both as soon as possible.” He gave his daughter a kiss on the cheek and released her into the waiting arms of her nursemaid, then patted Mhireen affectionately on the back.

As Vedran stood, Macen looked up from his blocks, his face crumpling with dismay. “Ada, no go ‘way,” he whimpered, plaintively stretching his arms up to his father, a heartbeat away from bursting into tears. Vedran looked like he might not be far from that point himself, but fortunately just before Macen could start to wail, Vinalia swept in and gathered her grandson up in her arms.

“Now Macen, Grandma is here, nothing to fuss about. Can you show me what you were making with your blocks?” She shot Vedran and Aleyn a look that told them to get out while they had the chance. 

Once they were in the hallway, Aleyn grasped Vedran’s hand tightly. “Rough time today, hm?”

“Yeah,” Vedran replied, leaning on his husband for a moment before they started walking down the corridor towards Ardith’s bedchamber. “I wondered for a moment there if maybe I should just... stay away, so I wouldn’t distract Ardith with my… problems.”

“Oh.” Aleyn wasn’t sure what to say, but he didn’t have long to make up his mind either. “I know it’s important to Ardith that you’re there. She’d worry more if you weren’t.”

“I know,” he sighed. “And I don’t think I’d feel any better if I wasn’t there either. I’ll pull myself together, it’s okay.”

“Okay. And we can talk about it more later, once we don’t have an audience,” Aleyn said. He was feeling a little anxious himself about the crowd of relatives, and wondering if they were judging him, or whether some of them thought he shouldn’t be there at all, but there was no time to worry about that now. “Right now, Ardith needs us - she’s the one going through the roughest time, after all.”

Vedran nodded, steeling himself before opening the door. Inside the scene was chaotic, with Ardith struggling to rise from the bed, while some of those assisting her were suggesting she stay lying down, while others were encouraging her to get up. Aleyn’s mother was in the second camp, it seemed. “Let her walk if she wants, it’s good for her, helps the baby come down faster,” she was lecturing anyone who disagreed. 

“We don’t want the baby to come too fast, it’s her first, she could be hurt,” Ardith’s sister was saying. 

Nasira scoffed at that suggestion. “She’s a big, sturdy girl, she’ll be fine!”

“You don’t know anything about dragonborn babies…”

“How different can it be?”

As soon as she saw Vedran and Aleyn had returned, Ardith gave a sigh of relief, which turned into a wince as she tried once again to get to her feet. “Thank the gods, you’re here.”

All of Aleyn’s worries drained away, except those about his partner. “We’re here. What do you need us to do?”

“Help me,” she said, grimacing as another contraction began. They hurried to her side, each taking one of her hands and supporting her as she breathed her way through it. When it had passed, she opened her eyes again, looking back and forth to Vedran and Aleyn. “I feel like I need to walk around, but I don’t know if I can.”

“You can lean on us,” Aleyn told her, and Vedran nodded his agreement. She put an arm over each of their shoulders, and they linked hands behind her back, helping her to stand. 

There was another flurry of consternation from anxious relatives, and the usual retorts and arguments were just beginning when Ardith lifted her head and glared at everyone in the room. “Be. Quiet,” she snarled. “Nobody talks now.” Miraculously, it worked - a hush fell over the assembled friends and family as, leaning heavily on her spouses, Ardith walked the length of the room, then turned and slowly began to walk back. Partway through the return journey, she paused, curling in on herself with a moan. Aleyn and Vedran kept on supporting her until the pain came to an end and she could move again. 

“You’re doing so well,” Aleyn whispered to her as they continued pacing the overcrowded room, hoping that the injunction against talking didn’t apply to him encouraging her. She managed a weary smile, so he figured it had been the right thing to say. 

“You can do it,” Vedran added, finding his voice. “You’re so strong, Ardith.”

“I don’t… feel it,” she muttered, hanging her head. “Just want it... over.”

“But you’re almost there,” Aleyn told her, and was relieved when his mother nodded her agreement. He had been present at the births of all of his younger siblings (although Ciryl’s was the first he could remember clearly) so he knew something about the process, and he was pretty sure this was getting close to the end.

As it turned out, it was a couple more hours of walking and leaning and agonized moaning - but once Ardith was finally able to start pushing, everything seemed to move very quickly, almost in a blur. Aleyn was dazed from lack of sleep and nerves, but seeing the baby emerge at last was an incredible feeling of joy and relief. It was a boy, healthy and most notably to his eyes, big. He didn’t cry in exactly the same way a human baby would, but made a hissing, whimpering gurgling growl that somehow still managed to sound adorable. 

“Look at him,” Ardith said with quiet wonder as she cradled him close. “Vedran, look, he has your scales.” Then she laughed, shaking her head. “You know what I mean…” 

It was true that, once he was cleaned off, the baby’s soft scales were a dark orange-red reminiscent of Vedran’s hair. “He’s beautiful,” Aleyn said, gently touching his hand, surprised at how strong the baby was already when he grasped his finger and held on tight. “I hope Saiya’s not too disappointed,” he added, grinning. 

“Hello, Edric,” Vedran said quietly, sounding overawed. He didn’t reach out to touch him, though he was close enough, seated on the edge of the bed. He seemed stunned into motionlessness.

From somewhere, possibly somewhere very far away, there was murmuring about the name choice from the gathered family members, but Aleyn didn’t pay it much heed. He was too enraptured with watching the baby’s every blink and flail of his arms. Soon, though, the women were saying that it was important for Ardith to get up so that the bed sheets could be changed, and so she could put on a clean shift. She looked to Vedran hopefully. “Could you hold him for a little while?”

“I… yes, of course,” Vedran told her, and hesitantly took the squirming infant into his arms, looking down at him with a mix of awe and terror. 

“I think you have to get up too,” Ardith pointed out gently, “so they can change the bed.”

“Oh. Right.” Vedran stood, balancing Edric carefully against his shoulder, and walked him around the room a little bit, so that all the assembled relatives could have a look at him. Ardith’s family seemed to approve. He ended up next to Aleyn, who was off to one side, sitting on a settee with his mother.

“Such a big boy,” Mrs. Harrowden said proudly. “I told you her hips were good!”

“I know, Mom,” Aleyn said, smiling. “You said it plenty. But… can I have a moment here? Maybe you could go and find Vinalia, to let her know everything went well?” He half-wondered if Vedran’s mother had dozed off while trying to get Macen settled down - or maybe she had just prudently taken shelter from the storm of the birthing room and had been waiting until it was over in order to greet her new grandson.

“Maybe I can - who knows in this house, it’s too big,” Nasira grumbled, but went off willingly enough to look for Vinalia, giving Aleyn and Vedran a short spell of relative peace and quiet as Ardith’s relatives helped her to get changed and settled back into the clean bed. 

Vedran sat down carefully beside him, still clutching the baby anxiously. “He’s so heavy,” he told Aleyn. “So much more than M-Macen was…” And with that, the flood of his emotions couldn’t be held back any longer, and he started to cry for lost moments and new chances. 

Aleyn put his arm around Vedran, his own eyes overflowing as well. “It’ll be different,” he managed to say, not caring just now whether he was on the receiving end of any disapproving stares. “We’ll all figure it out together.”

Vedran nodded, sniffling, and held Edric out for Aleyn to take. “Just… let me… handkerchief,” he was mumbling, trying to compose himself. Aleyn accepted the heavy bundle gratefully, oblivious to the tears still running down his own cheeks. He held the baby so that he could look at his face - _my son’s face_ , he reminded himself, repeating the words over and over in his mind. They still didn’t seem real, but he knew they would with time, until he couldn’t imagine it any other way. 

Nasira and Vinalia eventually returned to find both of their sons weeping over the newborn - who was the only one not currently crying, and in fact seemed perfectly content. “Men,” Nasira muttered with affectionate disdain.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr at [naryrising](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/naryrising) if you want to ask questions, make requests, or chat!


End file.
